If they move Holtby after this season this extension makes sense too.
Find it really hard to believe the team would commit to moving Holtby while
A). The team is still primed for "win now" mode
B). We have zero battle tested G's stocked and ready to go, only potential.
I think everyone in the "trade Holtby" camp conveniently forgets how many "superior" goalies we had to burn through before we found Holts. From Theodore to Holtby these are the G's we revolved through (note I did not include obvious backups like Peters/Johnson):
- Varlamov (First round talent, had a great playoff showing in 2009 and 2010)
- Neuvirth (Early second round pick, supposedly better than Varlamov, handed the reigns and expected to secure the #1 spot when Varly was traded)
- Vokoun (perenial Vezina/All-Star candidate, largely considered to be vastly under rated because of his stints on terrible teams)
- Halak (A capable G that we had seen first hand could steal playoff series)
- Grubauer (A 4th round pick, played the backup role well and much like Neuvirth began to gain the reputation of being potentially better than the 1 G, was so impressive last season he was tagged with G responsibilities heading into the playoffs)
These are our answers besides Holtby for the last 10 years, when you stare at them it's easy to see why they were so highly touted at different points, but when push came to shove the body of their work never amounted to a serious and stable 1 G spot.
You absolutely cannot and should not ever make decisions based on the perceived depth of your goalie pipeline. At one point our team had Varlamov, Neuvirth, Holtby, and a freshly drafted Grubauer. Of those 4 the second lowest drafted one is the only one still here and the only one to produce anything meaningful for any team.
Until Samsonov or Vanecek is essentially an All Star candidate I see zero reason to move Holtby unless we're rebuilding.